Latest news with #IsraeliDefenseForce
Buzz Feed
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Buzz Feed
Gal Gadot Says Snow White Flopped Because Of Israel
Let's not mince words: Disney's recent live-action remake of Snow White was a bit of a disaster. The reviews weren't great, and the box office performance was worse — grossing $205 million against a budget that hovered between $240 and $270 million. The film performed so badly that Disney reportedly halted production on any more live-action remakes at the time. The reason for why the film didn't do well really depends on who you ask. It is worth noting that there was rumors of "tension" between Snow White stars Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot during the film's press run, and that Rachel had received backlash for her support of the Palestinian people. Gal — who served in the Israeli Defense Force for two years — recently gave an interview on Israeli TV (via The Wrap) where she commented on Snow White's reception, and why she think the film underperformed. One notable comment: Despite the previous reports of tension, Gal said that she had a good time filming with Rachel. "We laughed, talked, and had fun," she said of her working relationship with her costar. Gal went on to claim that despite her belief that Snow White "would be a huge happening in all kinds of industries and also in Hollywood, is that there's a lot of pressure on celebrities to bring up things against Israel,' seemingly suggesting that pressure to speak against Israel contributed to Snow White's box office performance. 'You can always explain and try to give people in the world a context about what's happening [in Israel] and what the reality is here, but in the end people decide for themselves,' she added. 'I was disappointed that the movie was greatly affected by that and didn't do well at the box office.' OK then!
The Hill
10-08-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
Thousands in Israel protest Netanyahu Gaza plan, call for release of hostages
Hundreds of thousands of protesters flooded the streets of Israel, including Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, on Saturday night to call for the release of the remaining hostages and object to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plan to expand military control of the Gaza Strip, which escalates the war. In Tel Aviv, an estimated 100,000 people marched to demand an immediate end to the military campaign in Gaza and plans to escalate the conflict, according to multiple reports. In Jerusalem, protesters marched toward Netanyahu's residence to voice their disapproval of his newly announced decision, which was approved in a security Cabinet vote last week, multiple news outlets reported. The protesters come even as international allies speak out against the operation. Critics of Netanyahu's plan, including family and friends of hostages, say the decision puts their loved ones at greater risk. 'This isn't just a military decision. It could be a death sentence for the people we love most,' Lishay Miran Lavi, the wife of hostage Omri Miran, told the rally in Tel Aviv, according to The Guardian. She also pleaded with President Trump to intervene, though he's refrained from criticizing Israel's plans, giving Netanyahu a tacit green light. Some former members of the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) were also seen protesting Netanyahu's decision. 'We're over 350 soldiers who served during the war and were refusing to continue to serve in Netanyahu's political war,' former soldier Max Kresch told BBC News while holding a sign that reads 'I refused.' The protests stemmed from Netanyahu's latest move to escalate the Israeli takeover of Gaza, which has received international pushback from the United Kingdom, France, Canada and, most recently, Germany, which announced it would halt military exports to Israel that can be used in the Gaza Strip. 'We are not going to occupy Gaza – we are going to free Gaza from Hamas,' Netanyahu said in a statement Friday on the social platform X in response to Germany's decision. 'Gaza will be demilitarized, and a peaceful civilian administration will be established, one that is not the Palestinian Authority, not Hamas, and not any other terrorist organization. This will help free our hostages and ensure Gaza does not pose a threat to Israel in the future.' Last week, the Israeli leader said the takeover of Gaza is intended to 'assure our security, remove Hamas there, enable the population to be free of Gaza and to pass it to civilian governance that is not Hamas and not anyone advocating the destruction of Israel.'
IOL News
03-08-2025
- Politics
- IOL News
The winds of change are blowing in favour of Palestine
Israeli activists gather at HaBima Square for a protest march towards the Israeli Defence Ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv on July 22, 2025, denouncing the ongoing food shortage and forced displacement of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Abbey Makoe The tide is turning – and at a blistering pace – for the recognition of the Palestinian statehood by a growing majority of the nations of the world. As of this year, 147 out of the 193 UN member-states officially recognize the State of Palestine. At the end of a widely publicized conference on the Middle East held in New York this week, 15 predominantly Western nations undertook to recognize the Palestinian statehood. Represented by their ministers of foreign affairs, the following countries nailed their colours to the mast, once and for all. They are: Canada, France, Australia, Ireland, Finland, Iceland, New Zealand, Portugal, Norway, Spain, Slovenia, Malta, San Marino, Andorra, and Luxembourg. Why does this matter? It matters the most because, for far too long, the plight of the Palestinian people has been ignored by the bulk of the nations of the world. Let me paraphrase: The suffering of the Palestinian people has been aided and abetted by the vast majority of the world's most influential countries. The unfolding drastic changes in global relations once more prove a pertinent point: Evil can never triumph over good, no matter how long it takes. There have been times, times too many to count, when the temptation to give up the pursuit of Palestinian freedom appeared too appealing, and appeasing. The father of Palestinian freedom, Yasser Arafat, and hundreds of thousands of other Palestinians had lived and died for a free Palestine. As is the case with the blood of freedom fighters, their blood is never shed in vain. It nourishes the course for which men, women, and children give their lives. It expedites the attainment of the goal of liberty and freedom. The spirit of the more than 60,000 Palestinians who have been mowed down by the machine guns of the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) and their drones lives forever. Their blood nourishes the Palestinian tree of liberty. So, too, is the blood of the unaccounted-for thousands of Palestinians whose bodies continue to rot under mountainous heaps of rubble that is a testament to the relentlessly merciless bombardment of the Gaza Strip. The world is finally reawakening from slumber, regaining consciousness, and the sense of righteousness. Countries such as South Africa deserve a loud mention in defense of the Palestinian course for self-determination. So, too, are countries such as Russia, which, from as far back as the days of the Soviet Union, has recognized the Palestinian statehood and the UN declaration of the two-state solution as the safest pathway to a permanent basis for a peaceful coexistence of the peoples of Israel and Palestine. The 15 nations wrote in a joint statement that has captured the attention of the international community: 'We ...have already recognized, have expressed or express the willingness or the positive consideration of our countries to recognize the State of Palestine, as an essential step towards the two-state solution.' They explicitly called on the other member-states of the UN to join them in the push for the global recognition of the State of Palestine and the establishment and institution of the two-state solution, where apartheid Israel would cease to keep the Palestinians under the yoke of oppression. This shift in momentum towards ending the suppression of the rights of millions of Palestinians needs to be maintained. The fear of US hegemony has been overcome, and it appears to have finally been broken by its one-time enforcers. The public announcement by the French President Emmanuel Macron that Paris will officially recognize the State of Palestine when the UN General Assembly convenes in September shook the diplomatic cover and insulation that Tel Aviv has thus far enjoyed, with the apparent absence of conditions for several decades. Macron's pronouncement triggered different reactions from different quarters. First, and predictably, the US President Donald Trump poured scorn on France's move. But elsewhere – in Britain, to be specific – Prime Minister Keir Starmer faced heightened pressure to emulate his French counterpart. Traditionally, Starmer's Labour Party has been regarded as leftist and pro-poor, although in modernity, the party's actions have proved a far cry. Under immense pressure, the UK Prime Minister followed closely in the footsteps of his French counterpart when he announced that Britain, too, would recognize the State of Palestine when the UN General Assembly convenes in September. His condition not to follow through on his threat would be dependent upon Israel ending the 'appalling situation in Gaza', he said. Additionally, Starmer demanded that Tel Aviv must stop the expansion of the illegal settlements in the Palestinian territories and allow the UN to resume the distribution of aid in Gaza. Knowing Israel as we know it, the conditions are highly unlikely to be met. Therefore, we can expect the UK to join the growing chorus of UN member-states recognizing the State of Palestine. This development would inevitably create an unprecedented challenge for both Israel and the country's Big Brother in the form of the US. The worst-case scenario is that Washington would be as isolated as Israel amidst the rapidly changing geopolitical architecture. There would be sanctions against the political leadership of Israel and a highly likely trade embargo. The hegemony of the US is gradually crumbling as things stand in the world. The reconfiguration of the international world order has seen the emergence of new poles of power, such as BRICS, and the enhancement of the South-South solidarity. The Trump administration's tariff wars have also undermined the status of the US as a dependable leader of the so-called Free World. In addition, the emergence of China as a global leader of note has caused unprecedented schism in the collective Western domination of world affairs. As international relations scholars note, the rapid reconfiguration of global affairs bears implications of monumental significance. In my view, the sudden changes in diplomatic posture and narrative against the hitherto untouchable Israel are a game-changer. To borrow from McMillan, 'the winds of change are blowing'. The 55 countries that are yet to join the 147 that recognize the State of Palestine would not stick to their positions for too long. Liberty, equality, and freedom are some of the fundamental basis on which a just world order is built. The denial of the rights of the Palestinians by Israel cannot be permanent. Ask us in South Africa who were born and bred under apartheid. No matter how long oppression lasts, it too has a beginning and an ending. As for the Palestinians, the end of their long Israeli-induced misery is nigh. The excuse to annihilate the Gazans until the hostages are returned is too myopic an argument. The fundamental causes of apartheid in Israel ought to be tackled. As they say, violence suits all those who have nothing to lose. Life, all of it, is precious. Palestinian lives would soon be put on par with those of the Israelites under international law. When that happens, the impunity with which Israel has maimed and oppressed their fellow human beings in the land of Palestine will end forever. After all, it is what humanity expects. Strength and power to all nations that insist on a two-state solution where Israel would be held accountable for its excesses wherever they rear their ugly head, as is currently the case in Gaza and everywhere across the besieged Palestinian territories. *Abbey Makoe is Founder and Editor-in-Chief: Global South Media Network ( The views expressed are personal. ** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL, Independent Media or The African.
Daily Maverick
21-07-2025
- Politics
- Daily Maverick
The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born — now is the time of monsters
On Sunday, 13 July 2025, siblings Karam and Lulu al-Ghussain, aged nine and 10 respectively, went to fetch water for their family from a water distribution site in Gaza. Given the Israeli Defense Force's (IDF) much-vaunted proclamations of precision bombing, and that there is no indiscriminate bombing, we can assume that they identified when there were enough people and children in line, before proceeding with the bombing of the site, and dismembering Karam and Lulu. I began writing this piece on Saturday, 19 July, and during the course of Saturday 32 Palestinians were killed while seeking food and water. On Sunday, 20 July, another 73 Palestinians who had been queueing were killed. By Monday morning that figure had been adjusted upwards to 93 confirmed dead. The pope went so far as to describe the bombing as barbaric. Much of the aid now being 'allowed' into Gaza is being distributed by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an American organisation launched in February 2025 with the aim of supplying aid to Gaza. It operates in a small part of Gaza, has no website and has the full support of the Israeli government. The foundation has been accused of making starvation a bargaining chip and of being a direct accomplice in Israel's killing and starvation machine. The United Nations has estimated that since the end of May the IDF has killed more than 800 people who were trying to secure food at distribution hubs operated by the foundation. That figure is now well above 1,000. I would perhaps be somewhat cynical to suggest that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation exists simply to draw children to distribution sites to create an easy target for the IDF bombs. But am I? The population of Gaza is being systematically starved. And when, in a state of utter desperation, they seek aid, at the only site the IDF has approved, the IDF is then in a position to simply wait for enough people to arrive and to drop a bomb. Every day. Drop a bomb on children every day. Why? Because they can? This is slaughter for sport. And our response? Mostly silence, save for a few news outlets and intrepid reporters and commentators. How did we get here? How is it that the outrage is not so loud as to drown out everything else? In attempting an answer, I am going to draw on two books. The first, the Prison Notebooks of Antonio Gramsci, and the second the truly remarkable Ignorance and Bliss: On Wanting Not to Know by Mark Lilla. Gramsci was an Italian Marxist philosopher and journalist in the early part of the 20th century. He is most famous for his Prison Notebooks which he wrote during his imprisonment by Mussolini from 1926 until his death in 1937. Perhaps his most well-known quote is 'the old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters'. This idea of a 'time of monsters' refers to what he saw (the period following World War 1) as a time when the old order and old understandings were in a state of collapse. He called this the interregnum (from the Latin, meaning 'between reigns'). In the space created, in the vacuum of social upheaval, is when the monsters emerge to take advantage of the chaos. Hitler in 1930s Germany is, of course, the prototypical example. It seems incontrovertible that we are living in a time of monsters. Viktor Orbán in Hungary, Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil and Narendra Modi in India are all prime examples. And, of course, hovering creepily above all of this is the sociopathic felon and friend of Jeffrey Epstein, Donald Trump. But the prize for the monster of monsters must surely be Benjamin Netanyahu. A man willing to slaughter tens of thousands of children to stay out of court, and to fulfil his messianic delusion of Israel controlling all the territory from ' the river to the sea '. How did we get to the point where these are the monsters filling the void of power and taking millions along with their brutal lies? We now live in a world where millions of people believe that vaccines cause autism; where the habitual liar Trump is seen as a visionary leader; where climate breakdown is for many people a hoax; where the head of health in the US, Robert F Kennedy Jnr, does not believe that HIV causes Aids and believes that the Covid vaccines were developed to control people via microchips; and where Edgar Maddison Welch was so convinced that Hillary Clinton was running a child sex ring in the basement of a Washington DC pizza restaurant that he fired shots at the pizzeria using an assault-like AR-15 rifle in an attempt to 'save' the children, eventually serving four years in jail. Lilla, in Ignorance and Bliss: On Wanting Not to Know, offers a potential answer as to why so many people stubbornly refuse to see the world as it is, rather holding tightly onto some kind of self-delusion. He writes: 'We willingly give up a shot to acquire true beliefs about the world out of fear that truths about ourselves will be exposed in the process, especially our insufficient courage for self-examination. We prefer the illusion of self-reliance and embrace our ignorance for no other reason than that it is ours. It doesn't matter that reliance on false opinion is the worst sort of dependence. It doesn't matter that through stubbornness we might pass up a chance at happiness. We prefer to go down with the ship rather than have our names scraped off its hull.' Lilla argues that the more difficult the truth we have to face, the more we are likely to lie to ourselves. Imagine having to face the truth that we watched as one of the most powerful armies in the world (with the open support of the most powerful one) bombed and slaughtered a classroom full of children (27 of them) every day for 653 days. Every day for 653 days. We saw it happening and we denied, rationalised, pontificated, lied, fudged, and ultimately did nothing. No wonder there is so much solace and bliss to be found in ignorance. DM
UPI
18-07-2025
- Politics
- UPI
Netanyahu apologizes for bombing Gaza church after Trump call
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has apologized for the Israeli Defense Force's strike on Gaza's only church. Photo by Al Drago/UPI | License Photo July 18 (UPI) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has apologized for the Israeli Defense Force's bombing of Gaza's only Catholic church Thursday morning. The strike killed three civilians. "Israel deeply regrets that a stray ammunition hit Gaza's Holy Family Church. Every innocent life lost is a tragedy," Netanyahu's office said in a statement. He added the incident was being investigated. White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said President Donald Trump called Netanyahu to discuss the attack. Netanyahu told Trump it was a mistake. Netanyahu also expressed gratitude to Pope Leo XIV for his "words of comfort." The pope said he was "deeply saddened to learn of the loss of life and injury caused by the military attack" and reiterated calls for a ceasefire. The church's priest, the Rev. Gabriel Romanelli, was injured. Pope Francis had called Romanelli nearly every day throughout the war. Doctors at al-Ahli hospital said two women were killed, The Times of Israel reported. The third person, who died later, was male. The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem named the dead as Najwa Abu Daoud, Saad Issa Kostandi Salameh and Foumia Issa Latif Ayyad. Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa said he doubted the strike was an accident. "What we know for sure is that a tank, the IDF says by mistake, but we are not sure about this. They hit the church directly," he told Vatican media. The IDF said it did a preliminary investigation after reports of damage and casualties at the church, the Times of Israel reported. "It emerged that fragments from a shell fired during operational activity in the area hit the church mistakenly," the IDF said. "The IDF directs its strikes solely at military targets and makes every feasible effort to mitigate harm to civilians and religious structures, and regrets any unintentional damage caused to them."
